Aella’s POV

A crack could be heard as the bars began to give way underneath the intense pressure Aella placed upon them. Her knuckles turned white, and a fire could be seen ablaze inside of her eyes. What was she supposed to say back to that? Before her was an assassin that attempted to take her life, and while she tried to interrogate him the man had the audacity to question her. Even worse, the prisoner asked about something that had been eating at her for so long, but no one outside of the Kingdom should know about it.

“I asked you a question.” Aella said through gritted teeth, “And I expect an answer. Who told you that name? Did whoever sent you tell you to ask me that?”

I suppose that means she is the Aella from the visions I keep seeing. William thought, completely ignoring her.

She pounded on the bars, causing a ring to reverberate through the space in the basement, and yelled, “Answer me damn it! Where the fuck did you hear that name?”

Her monstrous roar brought William out of his thoughts, the wind from it blowing his hair out of his face, and he replied sarcastically, “You do realize I am merely five or six feet away from you right? Do you really find it necessary to shout?”

Aella’s face reddened, though whether from anger or embarrassment William was not sure. This woman clearly reacted to situations based upon her emotions rather than rationally thinking through it and considering whether or not he was goading her on purpose. William chuckled to himself thinking, These people wouldn’t make it a day in the training that the Master put me through.

William came to the realization shortly after that chuckling in front of an irate elf, considering they have a heightened sense of hearing, after being obviously sarcastic before them was a bad idea when Aella practically whispered, “You think this is funny?”

Aella’s entire body was shaking with rage, and there was only one way that she could release this pent up fury. She stepped forward, fully intent on beating this infuriating man to a pulp, before the two guards that stood at the bottom of the stairs seized her arms.

“My Lady you must not let him bait you into breaking him out. You already told us how skilled he was before, and we cannot count on whatever happened last time to happen again.” One of the guards spoke out, explaining himself before Aella could take her frustration out on them.

Though you could practically see the steam rising off her skin, Aella stopped advancing toward William’s makeshift prison. He smiled coyly at her and winked, which only fed the flames. Aella turned around and made her way back up the stairs. That damned assassin wouldn’t be smiling for long.

Aella went into her study and pulled out a spare piece of parchment from her desk. After writing a message onto the paper she said a small incantation, and a bright white dove materialized before her. This was the Dove Messenger spell that only specific elves were allowed to learn. Besides herself, the royal family were the only ones given access. This was one way for the other side to recognize the validity of the note.

Wasting no time, Aella rolled the message into a tight scroll, and tied it to the little dove’s right leg. After doing so, she opened the window to her study and the small bird left without hesitation. The Dove Messenger spell was convenient because the sender did not even need to know exactly where the receiver was, and the message would still make it. Merely picture the person you intend to send the message to and it will fly directly to them. She watched it from her window as it flew away, and then sat back down behind her desk. There was still much to be done.

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Wynter’s POV…

Hooves pounded against the hard stone road that was paved between the Elven Kingdom and Trace. Trade was made significantly easier after roads were installed, so even though Ilthuryn refused to make a road directly to any of the Elven cities, the roads did go all the way to the edge of their great forest. As the horses made their way directly to the Kingdom of Trace, a woman could be seen at the middle of the formation. White hair cascaded from underneath the metal helmet she wore. Her face was uncovered, and according to human standards, she would be considered extremely beautiful. Her pale blue eyes were surrounded by the sharp facial features that are common among Elves.

Wynter Liacyne had read the letter that Aella had sent to the King through her servant a few days ago. After she had asked Aella to go in her place Wynter constantly worried for her friend. However, Aella was the only one that she could trust with such a mission. Everyone from the common Elves in the capital to her Father had decided that Wyrran had to be dead at this point, but Wynter never gave up on her little brother. He was the light that had filled her days when they were young, helping her endure the boring lectures and various skills her mother forced her to learn.

After her Father was finished reading the letter, Wynter begged him to let her go under the guise of it being a challenge the human king. Sending a diplomat to request the Kingdom of Trace to release their slaves was one thing, but sending the Princess of the Elven Kingdom with two hundred elite warriors said something completely different. Valerion would realize that, although their kingdoms may be separated by a month’s ride when you use normal horses, Ilthuryn had ways to make that travel more manageable.

If you looked closely at the group as they ran down the road one would note that their speed was significantly faster than any horse should be able to run. The casual observer wouldn’t take note of it, but the horses also had another peculiarity. These magnificent steeds had six legs instead of four, which was the reason for their incredible speed. These mounts were called Iltharty. According to their current speed they would make it to Aston in a week rather than a month.

The Iltharty had great speed and stamina, but that did not mean that Wynter wanted to run them ragged. They had already ran for nearly forty-eight hours straight. She made the command to have them stop at the next clearing in order to rest themselves and their steeds. The clearing they were looking for only took a half an hour to find, and the group dismounted. The horses were left to graze while all of the soldiers began setting up camp. The first tent to be assembled was of course Wynter’s, and the soldiers would not let her aid them even if she desired to.

Night fell quickly after that, which ended the third day of their travels.

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William’s POV

The magic formation that trapped him inside of the basement of the manor was made well, and even after searching every inch of the thing William had yet to find a single flaw to exploit. He had seen such spells before, but usually the mages that cast it made mistakes in some area.

The woman who had spoken to him before came back down at various times. Each time she seemed to leave more furious than the last. It seemed childish, purposefully getting on her nerve, but the Master instructed that it was the easiest way to deal with female interrogators. Females, from William’s experience, tended to be the more emotionally driven of the two sexes. This allowed him to pull her strings in a way that he could receive what little information she had on this “Wyrran” fellow without giving any in return.

From what he had deduced based upon the memories that seemed to be spilling out from behind that ward that had been placed upon his mind, William figured that Aella had been interested in Wyrran in a romantic fashion. They spent much of their childhood together as well, seeing as how all of the flashes included Aella and some other woman with white hair that had been a little older than the both of them. The only thing Aella had given up that William had not already known was that apparently Wyrran had been kidnapped when he was young and stolen from his family castle.

It was odd, having memories that felt like someone else’s. Every time he had one of his visions it seemed like he was looking at the world from someone else’s eyes. He was unable to move or even say anything that he wanted to, and all that he could do was watch. After he got hit by whatever soul magic Aella had hit him with William’s mind block cracked and caused more memories to fall out from behind. The pain from the experience made him pass out, which ultimatelylead to his current predicament.

William scanned around the small basement again; Two guards stood at the foot of the wooden stairwell, small mage lights kept the room lit, as to make sure that the Elven guards would be able to see William at all times without worry. The crest on the guards left breast seems oddly familiar to William, he thought that one of his freshly received memories may have had the same symbol in it somewhere.

The door slammed open, breaking him out of his reverie. Here comes another round of ‘Aella asks William questions and, after receiving infuriating answers, she stomps right back upstairs’. The smirk that had formed on his face fell when he saw another figure coming down stairs instead. It was another woman, someone that he thought that he had seen before...